As lawmakers prepare to return to the Statehouse in January for the upcoming legislative session, leadership is prepping for the potential influx of more handguns.

Lawmakers approved a bill this spring that allows House and Senate staff, along with workers at the Legislative Services Agency and the Indiana Lobby Registration Commission, to bring firearms into the Statehouse, if they have a permit.

Supporters of the law saw it as a way to keep legislative employees safe at night, following reports of a few shooting incidents near the Statehouse.

However, opponents are worried about the concept of allowing guns in any workplace, where sometimes uncomfortable conversations are necessary and tensions can run high.

"I manage people at my real job and I know that can be intimidating if you’re a manager and you have an employee that you might need to discipline," said Rep. Phil GiaQuinta, D-Fort Wayne. "Sometimes with the added pressure here,... tempers can fly at night."

According to the Crime Prevention Research Center, 20 other states allow firearms on Statehouse grounds in some fashion. Most allow average citizens to bring their firearms into the Statehouse. Only two states specifically restrict it to lawmakers and their staffs.

However, most publicly visible and large companies with a diverse set of employees don't permit guns in the workplace, said Christopher Schrader, director of government affairs for Indiana State Council of Society of Human Resource Management. The possibility of the presence of firearms during tense personnel situations would worry human resources professionals, he said.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 415 workplace homicides in 2015 in the U.S., 354 of which were from shootings.

The business community pushed back in 2010 when Indiana passed a law prohibiting companies from banning firearms if they were locked in employees' cars on company grounds.

"Unfortunately it means for Hoosier employers and employees that a somewhat more dangerous work environment exists," Kevin Brinegar, president of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, said at the time.

'Protection and respect of their rights'

Supporters argued that oftentimes, staff work late into the night and have to walk outside and across the street to get to either the parking lot or garages.

Legislators already had the right to bring firearms to the Statehouse.

"Nobody knows how many of the legislators are carrying either," Rep. Jerry Torr, R-Carmel, added.

Proponents couldn't cite any instances in which staff members have been harmed walking to the garages at night, However, Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, said staff members had asked for the law during a committee hearing.

"(Staff) walking from the Statehouse to the parking garage, which is not very well lit at night, I believe they deserve the same protection and respect of their rights as we enjoy," Lucas said.

In both January and March someone was critically injured after being shot near the Statehouse on a weekend night. On a Monday evening in February, there was also a carjacking in front of the Statehouse, after a suspect put their hands around the victim's throat, according to a police report.

The number of criminal homicides in Indianapolis as a whole has been increasing year over year since 2012.

Opponents, such as Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis, worry the policy actually creates a less safe work environment with the increased possibility of misplaced or stolen firearms and accidental discharges.

"Realistically, you can’t legislate that sort of stuff out of existence," Lucas said. "We just have to assume that people who choose to carry a firearm are going to be responsible."

Earlier this month, House GOP leaders provided an optional firearms safety training session for their members, House Democrats and Legislative Services Agency staff. The Senate also will require training for those who wish to carry a firearm.

The Crime Prevention Research Center has tracked only two instances in the nation where a handgun misfired in a statehouse and a handful of instances where lawmakers temporarily misplaced their weapons.

Under Indiana law, staff members aren't required to tell anyone when they bring a gun into work. However, the House and Senate have adopted rules that require staff members to turn in a copy of their firearm permit before they can bring a gun to the Statehouse.

Taylor said he is more concerned about staff members rather than lawmakers carrying firearms because he doesn't know every staff member.

He said he may start bringing a firearm to the Statehouse in case he needs to protect himself.

"Am I supposed to be more cognizant?" Taylor said. "Am I supposed to make it clear: 'Be concerned, because I got my firearm too?'"

Restrictions

The new law didn't place restrictions on where employees could carry firearms in the Statehouse, leaving it up to House and Senate leadership to decide.

While the new law went into effect immediately upon passage in the spring, the House and Senate didn't create policies addressing firearms in the workplace until this fall.

There are generally fewer people in the Statehouse when lawmakers aren't in session, however, managers sit down with staff members for reviews during the summer — after the law would have gone into effect and prior to the changes to the personnel handbook addressing firearms.

Both policies prohibit employees from carrying firearms into meetings discussing employee performance or areas of the Statehouse where other branches prohibit firearms.

There are no such restrictions in the House or Senate chambers or in committee meetings.

Even if there were more restrictive policies, Taylor would still concerned.

"To know these individuals can have a firearm and be upset about something I might say or I might do scares me, because I am in a confined space," Taylor said. "Now instead of them protecting the people outside of the Statehouse they have put us in a position where we have to protect ourselves inside the Statehouse."